1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a closing device for furniture comprising a combination of a magnetic-retention system and a mechanical opening “pull-push” system.
2. State of the Prior Art
In current traditional applications, furniture hinges are equipped with a spring mechanism enabling automatic closure of the door starting from a predetermined closure angle. Under this situation, the door is opened by exerting a pulling action on the handle until overcoming the closure angle and keeps open as far as it is not pushed again towards the direction of action of the automatic closure mechanism.
In some applications use of handleless doors is preferred; in this case suitable pawls known as “pull-push” systems are mounted that, if the door is manually pushed against the flank's ledge, they alternately retain the door in the closed position or release and separate it some millimeters from the flank by means of a spring mechanism. These systems are also used in drawers or other opening parts of a piece of furniture.
Different systems exist for accomplishing the “pull-push” mechanism, but irrespective of the different embodiments, all known systems can be brought back to a single operating principle, i.e. they consist of two main components, one to be mounted on the fixed part. (the flank or horizontal elements, for example) and the other to be mounted on the moving part (the door or front portion of a drawer, for example). One of the two components has no moving parts and has one or more hooking surfaces at undercut regions relative to the perpendicular to the inner surface of the door in a closed position; generally fastening of this first component to the moving part is preferred, due to the smaller overall dimensions thereof. The second component, to be fastened to the other element of the piece of furniture, contains the hooking mechanism that through successive pushes of the door towards the closing ledge, alternately engages in the undercut of the first component causing retention of the door, or is released therefrom and enables opening of the door. These devices, irrespective of their mechanical features, have different drawbacks that are intrinsic in their operating principle: the two components contain elements that must get co-coordinated during closure and must mutually slide to lock and release the door; it is therefore apparent that a great accuracy is required for fastening of same; since generally the “pull-push” mechanism is fastened to the free end of the door, it is apparent that this accuracy can be hardly reached; in addition to tolerances on the sizes of the door and flanks, it is necessary to consider possible mistakes on fastening of the hinges, yielding of the hinges themselves due to wear, and adjustments of the door relative to the piece of furniture, all these factors bringing to even important shiftings relative to the theoretical-abutment position of the door against the furniture flank. In some cases, the mutual shifting between the door and flank can cause the serious drawback of locking the door to the closed position; since the hooking system is rigid, under extreme conditions it may be necessary to break the mechanism so as to open the door. A further drawback consists in the geometry of the hooking tooth obliging either to have projecting parts on the inner surface of the door or, alternatively, to embed the tooth into a hole.
It is a general aim of the present invention to obviate the above mentioned drawbacks by providing a closing device that has a “pull-push” operation but, among other things, does not require a particular precise alignment between the fixed and moving parts and can be released by a mere pulling action, when desired.